Thoughts on Employment

I've had two conversations in the last two weeks that have pretty much blown my mind. Both conversations were related to employment.

Last week, I was talking with My good buddy Pedro, who I don't get to speak to as often as I'd like. He and his wife have left sunny California to relocate to Boston. Pedro is in between jobs and enjoying a little QT with Kimya, his daughter. He said it took him almost two weeks to get the law buzz out of his brain (he's an attorney). I was thinking he was going to say it was just so intese that it consumed him.

Basically though, he indicated that it was stressful, tedious, often borring, and an experience riddled with self doubt. I was shocked at this, because when I find my job engendering exactly the same feelings, I often chastise myself for lacking Pedro's stick-to-it-ivness. He did press on to Law School while I basically fell into teaching, summer camp, and then construction, with a dash of beer and travel. When tedious, or high pressure projects get me down, I find some odd pleasure in convincing myself that I deserve it, because I was too lazy for law school. Not so apparently, no matter the effort, the result seems the same.

Then, just today, my boss and I were discussing some of our clients who seem like they could die at any time. He just blurted out, "that's why you've gotta just keep working forever." I questioned this logic, adding that it might have been our rich client's high powered careers that stressed them to within inches of death. My boss disagreed, he implied that work was our reason for living. I almost automatically blurted, "Are you kidding, work is the one thing that gets in the way of my happiness, I can think of litterally 100 fun things I could be doing right now, and it's raining." Now that might not be all true. My work certainly finances my lifestyle. And it keeps me out of trouble. And it was raining.

Particularly at a time when there are many people that want work and can't get it, I don't want to come off like a whiner. On the contrary, I'm not bitching about my job. I'm just fascinated really. Jobs are like mothers in their irony. I can bitch about the ridiculous stuff my mom says, but no one else can. And you better not try to take either one away.

Humans do lots of odd things. Things that seem odd or insignificant on the surface may have a deeper meaning. These two aforementioned conversations have just made me wonder about that caveat. Maybe it should just read: Humans do some odd things. Things that seem odd or insignificant on the surface probably are, but if someone is willing to pay you for doing it, That's Great!